Chapter One: Submerged

At Scituate Reservoir, Lark watches a pursued car sink with Jamie Merrick trapped inside. She confirms silence, debates calling her fixer Ethel, and instead phones her stepfather for a cleanup contact. He warns her to use an account code, no names, and to check in regularly, then texts Leviathan’s number. She reports one dead and requests scuba gear.

While waiting, Lark reflects on baiting Merrick through a fake teen profile and how the chase escalated when he refused to stop and she rammed him into the lake. She hides her damaged Escalade, removes plates, and settles in to wait. Hours later, a vintage car arrives; a masked, muscular diver verifies her code, checks her head wound, and declares a concussion. He searches the crash site and pointedly notes there are no skid marks.

Conor, a second masked cleaner, appears. The diver protects Lark when startled, then confiscates her gun. After hushed logistics, they retrieve Merrick’s body from the lake. Lark performs a thin “accident” routine, but the diver scorns her as a careless rich girl; Lark pushes back, insisting it’s their job. He says he has no choice in being there.

The men wrap the corpse and load it. Conor reassures Lark they’ll return with a boom truck to extract the submerged car and erase evidence. The diver, changed into black clothes and a ski mask, orders Lark to leave with him. When she resists riding in his Charger’s trunk, panic flares; he forces her in, insisting it’s the only safe option.

As they drive, Lark pounds the trunk and taunts him. When music drowns her out, she uses a guitar whammy bar to pop the vintage latch. At a slow turn on a deserted road, she slips out, knees bloodied, and lets the car roll away. She wipes her tears, chooses the opposite direction, and disappears into the night.